Iranian election: a choice between hardliners or the sole reformer not banned from running

PETER LLOYD: Iranians go to the polls today in the first presidential elections since 2009.

There's a field of hardliners running but some analysts are arguing that the sole reformer making a bid for high office could win.

Middle East correspondent, Matt Brown.

MATT BROWN: This election takes place in the long, dark shadow of the last one in 2009, when reformists accused hardliners of rorting the poll and the regime responded to peaceful protests with a brutal crackdown.

And the lead up's seen would-be reform candidates banned by the nation's top clerics.

So now the many millions of people who want their nation to change course face a tough choice: boycott the polls to highlight their illegitimacy and cede even more ground to the hardliners or get out to vote for the last lukewarm reformer left in the field.

He's Hassan Rowhani, a middle of the road cleric who's now won the support of the key opponents to the current regime: former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was one of those banned from running.

Their supporters have been showing up at Hassan Rowhani's political rallies and, observers say, the crowds and the candidate appear to have energised each other.

He's talking about freeing political prisoners and guaranteeing civil liberties.

(Sound of Hassan Rowhani speaking)

At a televised election debate, he said, "In all of aspects of their lives, people should feel they have freedom. Where they want to express their views and their opinions, or when it comes to an election, they should, with all sense of freedom, take part."

That's probably the real battleground in this power struggle - the way the clerical regime controls the lives of Iran's people. That and the troubled economy.

But it's worth noting that when Rowhani ran nuclear negotiations under president Khatami, he agreed to a freeze in uranium enrichment and, as a candidate, has promised to improve Iran's relations with the international community, strained by high level enrichment and biting sanctions.

(Sound of Hassan Rowhani speaking)

He told the audience, "We need to get away from extremism, this also relates to foreign policy. We should maintain the country's interests and national security so as to provide conditions where we create opportunities for people to participate politically, economically and socially."

Ultimately, however, nuclear policy is set by the hardline supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, and a sizeable field of candidates allied to him are led by a more recent nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

(Sound of Saeed Jalili speaking)

He told the debate audience, "At a time when some were calling for cooperation and saying we should avoid unnecessary confrontation, what were the results? They called us the 'axis of evil'."

All eyes are now on today's voter turnout. Will those who want reform make a last minute push to head off the Ayatollah's men? Can they actually muster the numbers? And even then, will the hardline clerics let their voices be heard?